The Australian journal of advanced nursing : a quarterly publication of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation
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A survey was conducted of the telephone callers who sought advice from the accident and emergency department of a 250 bed public hospital. The aim of the one month long survey was to determine the extent of the department's telephone triage and whether there was a need for formal protocols that reflected the medical and legal responsibilities attached to giving health-related advice by telephone. ⋯ Callers were advised by the registered nurses or doctors who happened to answer the telephone and there were no guidelines and no documentation of calls. As a result of the study, the Riverina Health Service instituted telephone triage protocols for all hospitals in its area and nurses now receive inservice education about their telephone triage role and responsibilities.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of critical care nurses and doctors to parasuicide patients. A survey was conducted of 299 nurses and 81 doctors working in emergency departments and intensive care units of nine Victorian hospitals. Data obtained from responses to a Likert-type questionnaire were assessed in order to explore relationships between the doctors' and nurses' attitudes and demographic and other variables. ⋯ Nurses were also significantly more likely than doctors to self report that they were afraid of saying the wrong thing to these patients. Eighty three percent of nurses and 61% of doctors stated that they would benefit from suicide related education. Addressing this expressed need must be a high a priority for critical care units if parasuicide patients are to receive more individual and appropriate care and if their carers are to experience greater work satisfaction.
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A grounded theory study of nursing leadership in Western Australia was undertaken to shed light on complex contextual and individual variables associated with nursing leadership. By applying the constant comparative method of data analysis, the core problem facing nurse leaders was identified as overcoming and compensating for disadvantage related to a repressing context which impeded the movement of nursing from retardation and mediocrity, through turbulence and toward excellence. Following a long period of stagnation (reflecting mediocrity in the nursing system) and a shorter evolutionary phase, revolutionary changes were being implemented, creating an extremely turbulent environment. ⋯ Failure to optimise led to floundering. Transforming reflected exceptional performance or excellence and involved using the optimising strategies of reversing negative situations and creating additional resources to achieve influence and significant advancement or change in the nursing system. This study has implications for leadership practice, for the development of future leaders and for future research and theory development.
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This study compared the incidence of pain reported by hospitalised patients with that recorded by nurses, correlated patients' and nurses' ratings of pain intensity and explored the relative importance nurses placed on various criteria in pain assessment. Patients (n = 115) in a university teaching hospital rated pain intensity on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and indicated its source and duration. Nurses (n = 115) caring for them rated their pain intensity on a VAS and ranked the importance of 12 factors in their assessments. ⋯ Patients' and nurses' VAS ratings were poorly correlated (rs = 0.35, p less than 0.001). The highest ranked factors in nurses' assessments were: what the patient said; the patient's report of the severity of pain; the patient's facial expression and the patient's posture. It was concluded that the prevalence of pain was high and that nurses' judgements were poor.
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The incidence and types of organisms present in the vacant ports of 424 three-way taps were studied. The taps were used in 50 children in ICU. ⋯ The organisms cultured were staphylococci, klebsiella, streptococci, bacilli and fungi. While there was no marked difference in the growth rate of organisms in three-way taps used in intravenous, intra-arterial and central venous lines, growth rate increased with duration of use.